


Instigator

by mushembra, Tamori



Series: And He Finally Learned What Love and Kindness Meant [9]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Harassment, He's working for someone, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rookie is a bastard who wants to hurt Gavin, Self-Doubt, Self-Hatred, Verbal Humiliation, auditory halluciantion (brief), who could it beeee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-07-03 18:15:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15824298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mushembra/pseuds/mushembra, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tamori/pseuds/Tamori
Summary: Gavin hates the new Rookie at the department, and he couldn't shake the feeling that he's being targeted by his harassmentWhat he and no one else in the department realize is that he was transfered to the DPD for a very specific reason, and perhaps it really was to break Gavin down in some sort of spiteful revengeBut who would do such a thing, and who will be there to rebuild and safeguard a heart so fragile?





	Instigator

Gavin fucking hated the new Rookie. Yeah, yeah, progress and not being bitter and blah, blah, blah, but some people were just pricks. Some people didn’t have damage to explain their cruel nature. Some people were just abhorrent and disgusting. Like Officer McMillan (or as he fondly calls him, Officer McDickhead. Came up with that himself thank you very much). The guy was about as young as he was when he started out on the force, and every bit as cocky and arrogant. Thing was, the guy flaunted himself like he owned the place and treated everyone like he was top dog, even fucking Hank Anderson and the Captain. And his father was starting to look every bit as wanting to clock the guy as Gavin felt. But for all of the shitty things he says and does, what really riles him up is how he treats Connor.

The Rookie has made it no secret he one, doesn’t like nor respect androids, and two, didn’t think Connor belonged here. All in all his lover was good about ignoring the venomous remarks. At work he let them roll right off of his shoulders, putting on a good show of indifference or making a return of sarcasm or passive aggression. But Gavin saw what he was like at home, saw how tired those eyes would get. And there was a particularly bad night when he had to hold the android as he sobbed against him, those lingering doubts and lack of self-esteem besting him when a bad day on the job mixed with a particularly bad encounter with the Rookie. Since then, Gavin found it harder to restrain himself from punching the fucker in the face.

“Hey, Reed! Where’s your plastic boy toy?”

Speak of the devil and he shall appear. Gavin turned in his seat to be met with the smuggest little smirk twitching up those lips. Oh if he could only wipe that look off of his fucking face. He really fucking deserved it. No one in Detroit deserved it more.

“One, he’s his own person and can do whatever he damn well wants. And two, none of your fucking business.”

“You should keep that thing on a leash. Better watch out, he’s going to replace you next.”

Gavin watched as the bastard side-eyed one of the android cops, who was now named Cynthia and had her own desk. The ones that were allowed to officially join the DPD all had their own desks and partners, and it caused a bit of controversy at first. But things had calmed, and they had all earned their place as competent officers. And you know what? None of the human officers had been fucking replaced. It was all unnecessary hysteria and talk that had no place here, especially around Gavin, and _especially_ when it came to Connor. The detective leapt to his feet, face red with his anger as he came toe to toe with the Rookie. He had to restrain himself, but fuck he didn’t want to. He could feel his hand tightening into a fist, one wrong word away from taking a swing.

“What are you gonna do wittle Gavin? Gonna punch me? Cwy? You are a weak little thing with no place here. Let the big boys take care of things around here and I'll get you a coloring book.”

“You know what motherfucker--!”

“Gavin. Hun?”

Gavin whipped his head to the side, locking eyes with Connor, whose sad yet soft expression was enough to deflate his anger. He looked back to the Rookie, who looked so damn pleased with himself. He knew he had won, but to the detective, winning would be letting the fucker get a physical reaction out of him. He couldn’t, and wouldn’t, do it. The Rookie walked away to his own desk, leaving Gavin to sink, defeated, back into his chair. This bastard had no right to say the things that he does, and didn’t deserve to be here. Fuck, he reminded Gavin of the man he used to be, and it made him sick. Disgusted. Was it hypocritical to even find fault in his behavior when not too long ago he was just the same way? It made him hang his head in shame, but of course Connor was there, wrapping his arms around him, safe and warm. He didn't have the heart to tell him it wasn't quite so easy to guard his heart from himself.

“He’s not worth it, Gavin. You’re nothing like him.”

Of fucking course he could read his mind. They couldn’t interface, Gavin wasn’t an android, but sometimes he thinks that somehow, Connor could pry into the deepest, darkest places within him. It should be unnerving, but all he could feel is comfort in being so understood, so loved. He smiled at the kiss placed to his temple, allowing the tension to melt away from him. Everything would be alright, at least for now. Besides, he had more important shit to do than allow that fucker to mess wit him. He wasn't about to let one man ruin the place he's carved himself out in this department, he wouldn't let anything stand in his way again.

 -------------------

Day after long day, and Gavin was on edge. He couldn’t help but think the Rookie was trying to break him down, doing it on purpose. It wasn’t lost on him that the bastard was targeting him more than anyone else in the precinct, eyeing him closely, always there with some fucked up remark to get a rise out of him. Connor was always there, as was Hank, ready to give him someone to lean on. Hell, if he didn’t know any better, Tina and Chris seemed to be keeping an eye on him and the Rookie, too. They’ve intervened more than once, pulling him away for lunch or coffee or any other sort of nonsense. And it was a relief, honestly, like they were guarding him from the hurt this bastard was trying to inflict. But they couldn’t all be around all the time. The Rookie was bound to get him alone one of these fucking days.

Gavin stood from his terminal, finally making some headway with this case, the case that could propel his career forward. He has a name, a witness, a way to get to the culprit if he played his cards right. This was it, what he was waiting for. But he wasn’t the only one waiting. Because here comes McDickhead now, walking over with some overexaggerated swagger. Maybe he should just cut off his legs. No amount of big-headed lunacy warranted walking around like that. Made him look like a fucking moron.

“You know, Reed, you should consider yourself lucky you weren’t sacked a long time ago. You’re disciplinary file is a mile long. Must have someone looking out for you pretty high on up.”

“Or maybe I just work hard, unlike someone I know. Don’t you have anything better to fucking do? You know, like, your fucking job?”

“Oh don’t act all high and mighty. You’re hardly any better than me. You’re pretty much the shit stain of this department. You make the DPD look bad and you, and I, and _everyone_ else here knows it.”

Gavin grit his teeth painfully together, trying his level best to remain calm. But it was hard when he found himself backing up for some reason, backing up against the glass wall of the office. He had to swallow down his fight or flight response, a feeling of foreboding invading every cell of his body. Was he seriously letting this fuckface bully him around?

“My recent track record would disagree, unlike someone I fucking know. What have you done since being here, huh? Not a damn thing from what I've heard. That badge isn't just for display dumbass.”

“Well, I know I haven’t fucking pissed myself and cried like some incompetent child. Tell me, Gavin, did your daddy not love you enough? Did wittle Gavin cry himself to sleep too many nights with an ass so sore he couldn’t sit covered in his own pee pee?”

Gavin could feel himself freeze up, limbs going rigid. How the fuck did he know that? How the fuck did this bastard know any of this?! He hasn’t had an incident since the Rookie started, and the sort of things his father did to him were a closely guarded secret. Only Hank and Connor were truly in the know, and anyone else could only guess. So how could he possibly know? What was this bastard after? Calm, he had to keep calm. He couldn't freak the fuck out now. Please, let him keep it the fuck together.

“Nothing to say? Did I hit a nerve? Poor babyyyy. Such a sad sack of shit and a sorry detective. Wanted to prove you could actually be something, but who are you fooling? Never fooled your poor old pops. He was right to be so…disappointed in you. I would be, and I bet I'm not the only one. Do you really think anyone believes your anything? They know. They're just humoring you until the game gets too boring. Fowler's ready to kick your career to the curb, daddy dearest is getting new locks on his doors to keep you out. And that pretty little boy toy of yours. Can't even keep an android's affections. He's getting sick of you. Getting sick of the man you aren't and can never be. I've been here only what, a couple of weeks? And I couldn't stand you the second I saw you.”

Gavin could feel his heart and lungs constricting, and he couldn’t keep the fucking shaking out of his body. He saw the hint of angry green eyes, and he had to shake his head against the memories, against the tirades and reminder of just how useless he was. A despicable and useless child, not worthy of love, not worthy of success. And definitely not worth of redemption. He wanted to say something, anything. Where the fuck did his backbone go? Buried under the pain, withered away into nothing. He wanted to cry out, call out. He needed help. He didn’t want to need help, he didn’t want to be dependent, but it was too little too late for that. He needed Hank, he needed Connor, he needed anyone to remind him he wasn’t this person anymore. Because in the face of this bastard, all he saw was the monster he was and the pathetic child he used to be and maybe always  _would_ be.

“Uh oh, poor baby is gonna to cry! It would do us all a favor if you just…resign. Walked away with what little dignity you have left. You're nothing in the department. Not a damn thing.”

Gavin could feel the panic starting to set in deeper and deeper in his veins, a virus that wouldn’t relent. Trembling hands pulled up his hood before his arms wrapped securely around himself, and the laugh that barked from the Rookie wasn’t lost on his ears. He flinched away from it, fighting the tears burning in his eyes. A cacophony of angry and cruel words assaulted his ears, mocking, vicious. Whispering words of worthlessness, of despair. He deserved to sit in solitude in his agony, with these hateful words clawing into his very being, tearing him to ribbons to leave nothing behind. It was penance for what he’s done, for the boy that he was and the man he became. It was all he deserved, all he should feel until it hollowed him out. A dead soul for the remainder of his days.

“Why don’t you run to your daddy, wittle Gavin. Run, and never return. Well, if he'll even take you. Maybe you should just run on home and cry yourself to sleep. You're good at that.”

And who was Gavin to deny that request? He couldn’t stand it a second longer. He bolted from the office to the evidence room, a hand clapped over his mouth to keep the sobs at bay. Worthless. Useless. Unloved. Unwanted. Everything he didn’t want. Everything he deserved.

\---------------- 

A commotion drew Hank out of the break room where he’d be shooting the shit with Connor. To his alarm, he was just in time to see Gavin's back as the man fled from the office space, which was never a good sign. And there was none other than the bastard of the hour, and surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly) Tina and Chris, now boxing the man in as he made to give chase after him. He's never seen such anger on their faces before, definitely not on Gavin's behalf. In did him proud, or would if he weren't so fucking worried and seeing a thick fog of red in his anger. He swore to fucking god if this bastard so much as touched a hair on his head--

“What the fuck do you two want?”

“What was that all about, man? What did Gavin ever do to you?”

“Oh, are you two soooo quick to forget what he did to you? Said to you?”

"You know what? Yes, we are. Because he's a good man, and a good detective, and doesn't deserve to be treated like this!"

Hank could feel his rage seething as he stormed over. He was absolutely fucking sure one more hothead to join the mix was the last thing they needed, but he has had enough. Nothing could justify this behavior, not a damn thing. He's stood back long enough watching this shit show. He was going to let it be known this bullshit was not going to be tolerated a second longer.

“Hey asshole, what kind of stunt was that, huh?”

Hank leveled a glare at the Rookie, who stood there with that stupid sneer plastered to his face. He had no empathy at all, did he? What a fucking monster. Hell, when Gavin spat his vicious words before his past started seeping through the cracks, he could remember seeing a flash of guilt and sadness mix with the anger in his features. But this fucker was nothing but a stone-cold monster with a heart of steel. Hell, he was more of a machine than Connor was when he first started his damn deviant investigation, and that was really saying something.

“What does it mater, Lieutenant? He’s a washed up piece of shit that honestly, I’m not sure was worth my time. Don’t even know why I bothered with the transfer. It's not getting me anywhere.”

“Hold on a fucking second. What transfer?”

If Hank didn’t think there was something up about all of this, he sure as shit knew there was now. He should have listened to Gavin. He's sort of just played the whole thing off as him being just a bit paranoid or whatever, but damn if he didn't feel guilty. Now look what happened. For fuck's sake.

“Yeah, some Perkins guy wanted me to dig up some dirt on the little shit. Something about making a fool out of him. I didn’t give a damn but hey, the pay bonus was good.”

Hank couldn’t fucking believe it. Or maybe he could. That Perkins is a real prick. But this? This was staggering, and definitely illegal on some level. And he could tell by the looks on their faces, Tina and Chris were just as disgusted. This was going to have to be reported one way or another, because both the Rookie _and_ Perkins deserved some sort of reprimand for the damage they've done. Chris glanced over at Hank, then nodded in the direction of the evidence room, something soft and concerned making it's way to his face before the anger returned.

“Go check on Gavin. We’ll handle this.”

Hank didn’t have to be told twice. He didn’t know what sort of state he would find Gavin in, but either way, his son would need him. He rushed off for the evidence room, taking the stairs two at a time. The sobs that met his ears only spurred him on faster, and what he saw at the bottom of the stairs made him all the angrier while shattering his heart in the same instance. His son was curled up under the large terminal sitting center in the room (even if it didn't really hide him all that well), arms wrapped tightly around himself as he openly wept away from the eyes of the department. He was muttering something under his breath, muttering it like a prayer to the heavens (or hell, who knows). The Lieutenant couldn’t quite hear it, but he knew whatever he was saying couldn’t be good, not from the type of talk the Rookie has been letting loose on everyone, especially him, since he got here. And Gavin found it hard to keep self-doubt from creeping back into his mind, telling him lies that stopped being true a while ago.

“Gavin? Kiddo? Hey—”

“Go away! Just get the fuck out of here Hank!”

That wasn’t good. In intimate settings such as this, Hank’s son never called him by his name. Something was torn down in him, something clawing at his self-worth and confidence in his place within this family. And that was something he was not going to let stand. He edged closer to Gavin, hands up in a placating gesture. Slowly, slowly, until he was finally close enough to kneel before him, expression schooled to be soft, forcing the anger from the lines it had etched into his aged features. Anger has always been a trigger for the poor kid, and triggering him was the last thing he needed.

“Kid, I’m not going anywhere. Not without you knowing something. Because I need to make this clear in that dark little head of yours. Fuck, I'll say it again and again until I'm blue in the face”

Hank sat himself down fully with a grunt (fucking joints), then lay a firm and gentle hand against his son’s shoulder, nothing but love and fondness in his eyes. Well, the crying was dying down a little bit, that was a start.

“Whatever anyone else says about me, or Connor, or anyone else loving you, and caring about you, that’s a fucking lie. You are not your past, you are not your father. You’re not the mistakes you make or the weak man you think you are. Only someone as strong as you’ve proven yourself to be can make it through all of that shit and become a better person for it. Sure, you have your days. We all do. I’m not perfect either. I still drink too much sometimes. Connor still doesn’t really get his emotions all the time and comes off as being an unfeeling little shit. But guess what? That’s what makes us human. That bastard in there? He's a monster who’s going to slip up and screw up. People like him always do. But you…you are so much more than that. You don’t need to prove that to anyone, you already have.”

Fuck those wide and hopeful eyes were killing Hank. They always did when the kid was told something that just reshaped his whole idea of the world and himself. It made a deep sadness well up in his chest at the thought that Gavin thought so poorly of himself, saw nothing of the progress he's, eyes leveled on the past with such an obsessive focus. Well, if it took him the rest of his fucking life to prove to him that he was so much more than that, well that's what Hank would have to do. And he would do it gladly. The two of them sat in the evidence room for some time, Hank allowing his son to cry out all of the pain and sadness from the verbal abuse he's allowed himself to endure throughout the Rookie's stay. And by the time he managed to get them both up the stairs, the man of the hour had been removed from the premises and was officially being transferred to his original posting with consequences to come for his actions.

Not all people in the world had reasons to be cruel outside of being fucking disgusting human beings, and those people would stop at nothing to tear everything down around him. Gavin could all to easily have let the Rookie get to him, slam the walls back up, undo all of the progress that was made. He could have resorted to violence, lashed out on everyone around him. But that's not what he did. Hank stood in the doorway of his living room with a soft smile on his face, the sight of Gavin curled up on the couch with Connor and his newest brother Ralph (yeah, another fucking kid), resting after a very long day, warming up his old, cold heart. Sometimes being patient and opening up the doors was worth everything to be able to show someone they weren't they monster they believed they were all along. Gavin might need to hear it for the rest of his life, but Hank knew he had a family that were willing to say it until his very last breath.


End file.
